Large rocks submerged, or partially submerged, in the topsoil are catastrophic to most agricultural equipment. It is a fact that most unexpected damage to such equipment is caused by large rocks present in the agricultural field topsoil Therefore, such large rocks need to be removed before an agricultural field can be properly tilled, planted and harvested.
The age-old evident seasonal phenomenon of freezing and thawing of the topsoil that causes submerged rocks to move upward towards the surface of the topsoil results in submerged rocks of all sizes emerging every spring when the ground thaws. This phenomenon is especially evident where loose, uninhabited soil conditions exist, which is the state of a typical agricultural field during the freezing and thawing cycles. The effects of this situation has long been and will always be an issue for conventional crop farming operations, big and small.
In order to prevent damage to expensive equipment, most farmers must look for and remove rocks every spring. This requires additional labor and machinery which, of course, is in addition to tillage, planting and harvesting processes. This process must be accomplished in the spring prior to planting when time spent cultivating and planting the field is more desirable in crop farms. Present approaches are also generally limited to the removal of rocks that are exposed at the surface of the topsoil prior to spring tillage and so the field-preparing rock removal process is never fully effective. This is due in part to the fact that some large rocks are not exposed, but are instead, barely submerged in the topsoil Therefore, these rocks are not removed, but instead may be struck by a pre-planting tillage implement. Therefore, large rocks may remain to hinder the tillage and planting process in many areas.
The assistance of separate special heavy equipment is necessary for a person to remove large rocks from the topsoil of an agricultural field. Rocks encountered by one operating a machine such as a tractor or other vehicle, with the means to store and transport large rocks, such as a container or box, possibly while also attempting to perform an operation such as preparing, tilling, planting, spraying, etc., is, of course, limited to removing rocks that he or she is capable of physically digging up and lifting into the storage container or box.
The modernization of farming has resulted in a farming operation using very large tractors to pull very wide multi-row tillage and seeding implements to complete spring tillage and planting operations in a shorter time. Such operations use technology like GPS-guided automatic steering. Such tractor and associated implements are capable of completing hundreds of acres of spring tillage in a day.
Further, in such a scenario, efficiency and time are the most important factors in the interest of saving labor and money. Furthermore, a farming operation may include working acreage located a long distance, possibly over 30 miles from the main farm site. When a tractor operator is tilling a field 30 miles from the farm site and comes upon a large rock that is impossible to physically lift, a responsible operator is then forced to “mark” the large rock via flag or GPS coordinates, and arrange for outside means of removing the large rock. This requires traveling 30 miles to and from the field in addition to removing the large rock. This is a common situation that, if avoided, could save a crop farming operation a significant amount of time and money.